Report -Westwood Quarry, Wiltshire - June 2010

Leggy brunette

Westwood Quarry was Originally two Bath Stone mines, the mines were merged together to form an underground mushroom farm for the Agaric Mushroom Company. In World War II large sections of the mine were acquired by Royal Enfield and the Government. Royal Enfield utilised their section as an underground 'Shadow factory' producing Anti-aircraft predictors. Royal Enfield remained here until the 1970s using the space as a workshop for their motorcycles. Two former employees continued maintenance and repair work here until the 1990s. Today this section has suffered from natural decay, however is fairly intact if somewhat empty.

Branching from the main drift, another 20,000sq ft of the mine was used to store the priceless treasures of the London Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum as well as private collections, notably the royal families jewels. Unsurprisingly post war these were removed. This area of the mine is still used by Wandyke Security as a safe storage archive. In the 1970s Hanson acquired rights to commence mining at the site, and this ceased in 2008.

I went with some Northern/Midland friends joining a few Southern monkeys, namely VWdirtboy and Petzl amongst others

A pretty enjoyable trip :)

The main drift

Heading towards the archive

Gates into the archive, according to my sources these are a very recent addition - it did seem very clean and modern compared to the rest of the mine

No photography...

Entering one of the older areas of the mine, your introduced to Mr Big, the friendly neighbourhood bulldozer... not sure which model though

There's plenty of 1940s ventilation systems and electronics, including fully working substations

Back in the mine...

The mine office

Time was pressing, so didn't get many shots within the Royal Enfield factory